The present invention is directed to a method for controlling door and window adjusting parameters of an actuated motor vehicle sliding door having a window located therein. Either or both of the window and door may be powered.
Increasingly, motor vehicles make use of motor drives for opening and closing sliding doors. Typically, such sliding doors are placed between B and C columns of a motor vehicle, such that, when closed, the sliding doors lock the respective motor vehicle body section.
In the present description, the motor vehicle body sections which apply to the B and C columns, placed to the vertical sliding door edges and adjacent one another at a closed sliding door, are independent of whether they are the actual B and C column of the motor vehicle. A sliding door may, for example, be located between the C and D column of a motor vehicle. It is further possible that respective windows of sliding doors and adjacent window or windows of front swinging doors are developed without a window frame, so as to preclude a B column per se. Accordingly, flexible use of the B and C column notation below along with alternative embodiments of the present invention are included within the scope of the invention.
In the prior art, a crush situation between a sliding door and the B column of the motor vehicle can only occur at the motor driven closing of the sliding door, if the window of the sliding door is closed. There are appropriate crush protection devices provided for appropriate detection.
If the window is fully or partially open, a further crush situation can occur during the opening process of the sliding door. If an object projects out from an open window or retracts into the vehicle's interior, the object is necessarily crushed between the C column of the motor vehicle and the window frame section moving towards the C columns before reaching the complete opening position of the sliding door.
Control systems for controlling vehicle sliding doors, windows and such, include sliding door control electronics for a sliding door actuation device, for the actuation of a sliding door motion along a door adjusting range; window control electronics for a window control system, allocated to a sliding door, with a window pane for the motive actuation of a motion of the window pane along a window adjusting range; and a sensor system for the detection of obstacles in the window adjusting range and in the door adjusting range.
Increasingly, motive actuations, for the opening and closing of the sliding door, are used for motor vehicles with sliding doors. Generally, such sliding doors are installed in the section between the B and C columns of a motor vehicle, in such a way that they close a vehicle's section of the motor vehicle between its B and C column. The vehicle's section is thereby defined by two essentially vertically running closing edges of the sliding door.
Sliding doors may further be installed in mini-buses between their C and D columns. It is further possible that the window of the sliding door and a front and/or rear window adjacent to it are configured without a window frame or with a relatively small window frame so as to preclude conventional B and/or C columns. However, a B and in particular C column with regard to the present invention is still allocated to the sliding door, namely, in the form of the vehicle's sections adjacent to the front respective back closing edges.
With the traveling element in the form of a window pane on the adjusting range of the motor-driven sliding door, new risks arise regarding potential crush incidents in the window and in particular in the door adjusting range.